Biogas, how almonds’ residues become clean energy

For us at Alfrus, processing waste is not garbage to be disposed but a valuable resource to be reused. We do it with water that after being used for cleaning our almonds is filtered and used for the irrigation of fields. And we do this with the residues of our products’ processing, such as the integuments of almonds, obtained from the peeling process, which become a valuable resource to produce biogas.

Actions of true environmental sustainability start, in fact, from a change of approach and mentality. Therefore, waste should not be considered and treated as mere garbage, but as a resource, with the purpose of reducing the environmental impact of production, just as the UN has asked us through the 2030 Agenda.

EVERY DAY WE PRODUCE 5000 KG OF VEGETABLE RESIDUES BUT WE DON’T THROW IT AWAY

From almonds peeling process we obtain every day 5.000 kg of integument (the layer that wraps the seed of the almond) and that is exactly the amount of material that we deliver to a biogas production plant.

The integuments contain an average of 70% moisture because they come from a peeling process that uses water and heat to cause the natural detachment of this layer. However, the moisture present in the processing residue is valuable in the anaerobic fermentation process that is the basis of biogas production.

WITH BIOGAS WASTE PRODUCES CLEAN ENERGY

The biogas plant where we deliver our material uses, for the production of energy, only organic materials of agricultural origin, just like the residues of almonds. These vegetal and organic materials, which are not suitable for consumption, naturally produce a mixture of various types of gases through an anaerobic fermentation process. In this way the biogas used for the production of electricity originates.

The biogas has many advantages:

• The use of biogas enables savings of fossil fuels by preventing the release of additional carbon dioxide into the environment, since the amount of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere by these plants corresponds to the amount used by plants for photosynthesis.
• The energy obtained from biogas is always available, regardless of weather conditions that affect instead in the production from wind and solar sources.
• The fermentation residue is used as fertilizer in agricultural crops, so there is no waste.

WHY WE BELIEVE IN BIOGAS

We have relied on serious and trusted partners to find sustainable solution that allow us to start reusing our processing waste. An awareness for a virtuous production that has seen us protagonists for a long time: in the past our by-products were destined for zootechnical uses, from the production of compost to that of animal feed. However, today we have chosen to do even more, by using the almonds' peeling?process residues in biogas plants for the production of clean energy.

At Alfrus we are committed to ensure more quality, less waste and a lot of environmentally friendly energy.